Electrically powered four-wheeled single vehicle

ABSTRACT

Electrically powered four-wheeled single vehicles especially for disabled persons and invalids and specifically made for out-door use must have such stabilizing qualities that under all circumstances there is no risk for the chair to turn over even if it will have to force different kind of obstacles such as curbs. A further object of such vehicles is to provide a simple and safe steering operation so that the forces from the obstacles to be forced must not be transmitted to the steering handle, since patients in many cases have considerably reduced power to control such forces by hand. These objects are realized in the present invention substantially by the fact that the vehicle comprises a rear and a front portion which are swingably connected to each other by means of telescopic pipes or the like running substantially in parallel with the ground and in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. To meet the requirement of a safe and unaffected steering operation the front wheels are neutrally positioned in a way that the extension of the swivel axles will cut the contact surfaces between the corresponding wheels and the ground.

United States Patent Udden et a1.

[54] ELECTRICALLY POWERED FOUR- WHEELED SINGLE VEHICLE [72] Inventors: Per Edward Carl Udden; Bert lfialmar Engman; Siegfried Graf, all of Box 90, 861 Timra, Sweden 22 Filed: June 1,1970

21 Appl.No.:-42,1l6

[] Foreign Application Priority Data June 2, 1969 Sweden ..7712/69 521 u.s.c|. ..180/R,280/34R,280/lll [$1] lnt.Cl. ..B60kl/00,B60lll/l8 [S8] FieldofSearch ..l80/65,70,55,56,57,58,

[56} References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 583,018 5/1897 Baker ..180/ 3,179,199 4/1965 Moran ..180/65 1,202,472 10/1916 Binford.. .280/111 X 698,376 4/1902 Crowdus. ..180/60 873,711 2/1941 Bruen ..l/1 X 2,233,318 Lewis et a1. ...280/111 X [451 May 23, 1972 Primary Examiner-Benjamin Hersch Assistant Examiner-Milton L. Smith Attorney-Fred C. Philpitt [57] ABSTRACT Electrically powered four-wheeled single vehicles especially for disabled persons and invalids and specifically made for out-door use must have such stabilizing qualities that under all circumstances there is no risk for the chair to turn over even if it will have to force different kind of obstacles such as curbs. A further object of such vehicles is to provide a simple and safe steering operation so that the forces from the obstacles to be forced must not be transmitted to the steering handle, since patients in many cases have considerably reduced power to control such forces by hand. These objects are realized in the present invention substantially by the fact that the vehicle comprises a rear and a front portion which are swingably connected to each other by means of telescopic pipes or the like 1 running substantially in parallel with the ground and in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. To meet the requirement of a safe and unaffected steering operation the front wheels are neutrally positioned in a way that the extension of the swivel axles will cut the contact surfaces between the corresponding wheels and the ground.

4 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures P'A'TENTED MAY 2 3 I972 SHEETEUFZ ELECTRICALLY POWEREDFOUR-WI-IEELED SINGLE VEHICLE Four-wheeled single vehicles for outdoor use are with the present conventional designs too wide to cover all transportation demands for instance for invalids. It is therefore desirable thatthe width of the vehicle not substantially exceeds a size of 70 cm. Simultaneously from a. stabilizing point of view' the angle between the resulting center of gravity and the contact surfacesbetween thewheels and the associated. supporting surface has to be. small even if the driver is sitting in normal chair-height.- The vehicle must also be. thus designed that it couldpass-overobstacles such as curbs with a heightabout 15 cm. Moreover, it is obvious that the vehicle must not stall or powered single vehicles such as invalid wheel-chairs, for outdoor use. One type is the so called Permobil, which substantially is characterized by a pair of non-steerable front Wheels ,and .a pair of rear driving wheels, which are swingable around asubstantially vertical axis by means of an electrical motor. Further, there are three-wheeled chairs in which the steering wheelis situated underneath, in front of orbetween the feet of the driver or alternatively form the rear wheel of the vehicle. If the latter is the case, the vehicle must be extremely long to permitsatisfactory stability. However, if the steering wheel is situatedin front of the driver, the vehicle will notbe able to pass over obstacles such as curbs without great risk for turning over. A still further type of vehicle is provided. with two big front wheels and two rear pivot wheels which are mounted to permit a swinging movement around the. vertical pivot axis. However, if a wheel .chair with pivot wheels is driven backwards, the resulting wheel shaft distance is substantially decreased and when the chair is swung laterally the contact surface for one ,ofthe pivot wheels is moving towards the lead line of the center of gravity. These effects vwill-resultin considerable drawbacks and for the first the decreased wheel shaft distance is very dangerous when the chair is backed downacurb as many patients for medicalreasons have to do and secondly to compensatefor the instability when one ofthe pivot wheels is swung towards the lead line of the center of gravity the chair must have certain width which cannot go below a measure of 80 cm. Even the steering operation with these prior art wheel chairs has certain disadvantagesand specifically when driving sideways up a curb or other obstacle the pivot wheels will transmit very strong forces in the steering device, andspecifically in hand steering such forces can .be very difficult to control for the patient.

The object with the present invention is to-elirninate the drawbacks mentioned above, which all prior art vehicles are impaired ,by and simultaneously realize a simple and consequently a cheap design, which could be used by partially disabled persons, who may not need an expensive and complicated wheel-chair such as the Permobil.

These objects are realized in a vehicle according to the invention which is substantially characterized, by the fact that the rear and the front portions are connected to each otherby means of two shaft parts, which are swingable-around a common central axis and rigidly connected to each part of the frame, said shaft parts being disposed with their central axes substantially in parallel with the ground and in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and that the swivel axles of the front wheels aredisposed substantially above the contact surfaces between the corresponding wheels and the ground in such a way that the extensions of said swivel axles will cut the corresponding contact surfaces.

- reardriving wheels land 2 with separate traction motors 3 and 4. In one embodiment of the invention there is onlyone traction motor, which via adifferential gear is driving the two rear wheels. When the wheels are driven separately it is essential, however, that the transmission from the motor tothe wheels is not of the self-braking type despite that the gearing ratio must lie between 15:1. and :1. Even a relatively low self-brakingefifect willnamely. give raise to difiiculties in the steering of the vehicle. A worm gear'with a gear ratio between 8:1 and 20:1, preferably 11:1 and achain transmission with a gear ratio between 3:1 and 5:1 will not appreciably affect the driving characteristics if the angles of the worm gear are chosen in a suitable way.

Toincrease the stability the rear driving wheels have been rigidly connected with the frame of thechair. The seat 5 is swingable around a transverse axis 6 just behind the back part of the knee of the driver and the seat isresiliently supported by means of a combined springand shock absorber 7 which decreases the catapult effect in rapid braking operations. The seat 5 is placed in front of the rear wheel shaft so that the risk for stalling has been considerably. decreased. To give the vehicle a low center of gravity the accumulators 8 have been placed between the rear wheels.

The two front-wheels 9 and --l0 have a diameter which can vary between 30 and50 cm and between the wheels there is a foot-plate l 1 which is entirelyinsidetheside projection of the front wheels to makeit possible to drive up a curb which is higher than the front edge of the foot plate. At frontal collisions damage is decreased or eliminated on one hand by a shock-absorber: l2 and on the other hand by arranging the front edge ofthe steering wheels in front of the foot-plate 11. The steering-wheels are conventionally actuated by means of tie rods 13-which are approximately. equally long and connectedto a knee-lever 14 which in turn is actuated by a link rod l5;disposedsubstantia1ly. in parallel with the longitudinal axis of the chair and close'to the center line of the same. The link rod 15 is displaced to and fro by means of a steering bar 16 with a handle 17, which'is manually controlled. This-handle could be provided with speed and braking control means as are normally used in motorcycles andthe like. The driving wheels are braked by means of brake drums in the wheels and the brakes areactuated by means oflinks or wires from a transverse axle, which in turn is actuated by means of a hand control 18. This 8X16 could be connected with a device for speed control, for. instance a switch or a potentiometer which is connected to an electronic speed control. The control is suitably thus arranged that the speed will decrease to zero before the brakes are actuated. To eliminate damages on the switches or the electronic equipment a control, device for forwards and backwards movement makesit impossible to change the direction of movement before changing the position of a control knob. The parking brake could be thus arranged that the'brake control is locked in the braking position.

The two front wheels 9 and 10 have been neutrally positioned, whichmeans that the extension of their swivel axles l9 and 20, respectively, will hit the contact surfaces between the corresponding wheels and the ground. To increase the stability some embodiments have been supplied with front wheels with certain camber, castor-and to-in-angles as commonly known. It has been proved that a chair, in which the front wheel unit is swingable around a longitudinal axis in relation to the frame of the chair can be driven sideways up a curb without essenu'al affection of the driving direction even if the steering handle has been let off. The front wheel unit is connected with the frame and the rear wheel unit via two shafi parts 21 and 22, respectively, in the center plane of the chair and these parts are displacable in each other and could be fixed in arbitrary positions. The axles are swingable in relation to each other which permits the front wheels closely to follow all irregularities on the ground. It has appeared to be suitable and further increased the stability of the vehicle if the swinging movement between the front wheel portion and the rear wheel portion is resiliently damped for instance by means of a torsion spring in the connecting axle.

The longitudinal link rod 15 can in a similar way be adapted to or manufactured in different lengths. When the chair is steered by means of the steering bar 16 there is a demand for wide steering deflections with only small movements of the handle 17. This is due to the fact that in some cases the range of movement of the patient is very limited and even for other reasons it has appeared to be suitable with a small control range of the steering bar. This object is realized through the neutral positioning of the front wheels, so that only small forces are required for the steering operation. The setting of the control range could be accomplished by connecting the lever at different distances from the fulcrum 23 of the steering bar 16.

The horizontal connection between the front and the rear portions of the frame is disposed at low height above ground for instance at 10 cm with the link rod 15 in parallel with and close to the shaft parts 21 and 22. The seat of the vehicle will be easy to take and leave when the front wheels have been swung aside. With a diameter of about 50 cm of the rear wheels and about 40 cm of the front wheels and a total length of about l30 cm of the vehicle the taking and leaving of the seat will become very easy and this has been further facilitated by means of a device 24 which makes it possible to turn the seat 5 about 90 from the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.

The steering wheels should be able to turn an angle of about 45 to each side in order to achieve a short turning radius and this could be accomplished without increasing the width of the chair over the stipulated measure of 70 em if the foot-plate 11 is placed in front of the divided tie rod 13 and is given a moderate forward extension for instance of a substantially elliptic design.

In a further embodiment of the invention the hand steering bar could be replaced by a rod for steering the chair with one knee via a horizontal link system.

In a further embodiment of the chair the steering operation could be controlled by an electronic steering equipment which is operated by a person walking next to the chair.

We claim:

1. An electrically powered four-wheeled vehicle that is especially useful for invalids, comprising in combination:

a. a rear section and a front section,

b. said rear section including a pair of driving wheels, means for driving said wheels and a driver's seat,

c. said front section comprising a pair of front wheels and a framework interconnecting said wheels,

d. braking means for at least some of said wheels and steering means for said front wheels,

e. said rear and front sections being interconnected to each other by means of a pair of telescoping tubular shafts, one shaft being connected to said rear section and one shaft being connected to said front section,

f. the said tubular telescoping shafts of e being positioned in axial alignment with each other along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and having at least limited rotative movement relative to each other,

g. said tubular shafts being disposed above the ground at a height which is less than the radius of the smallest wheels on the vehicle.

2. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein said tubular shafts are disposed above the ground at a height which is one-half the radius of the smallest wheel of the vehicle.

3. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein the extent to which the shafts of (e) can telescope in coaxial relationshi is adjustable, whereby the distance etween the front section and the rear section may be varied.

4. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein said steering mechanism comprises a link system with a link rod, one end of which is swingably connected to a steering bar, which is in turn fulcrumed in the rear frame, the other end of said link rod being swingably connected to a knee lever, which is in turn fulcrumed in the front portion of the frame, said knee lever being rotatably connected to a tie-rod mechanism for the tuming movement of the front wheels and the swivel axle of each front wheel is disposed substantially above and perpendicularly to the contact surface between the corresponding wheel and the ground. 

1. An electrically powered four-wheeled vehicle that is especially useful for invalids, comprising in combination: a. a rear section and a front section, b. said rear section including a pair of driving wheels, means for driving said wheels and a driver''s seat, c. said front section comprising a pair of front wheels and a framework interconnecting said wheels, d. braking means for at least some of said wheels and steering means for said front wheels, e. said rear and front sections being interconnected to each other by means of a pair of telescoping tubular shafts, one shaft being connected to said rear section and one shaft being connected to said front section, f. the said tubular telescoping shafts of e being positioned in axial alignment with each other along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and having at least limited rotative movement relative to each other, g. said tubular shafts being disposed above the ground at a height which is less than the radius of the smallest wheels on the vehicle.
 2. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein said tubular shafts are disposed above the ground at a height which is one-half the radius of the smallest wheel of the vehicle.
 3. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein the extent to which the shafts of (e) can telescope in coaxial relationship is adjustable, whereby the distance between the front section and the rear section may be varied.
 4. A vehicle according to claim 1 wherein said steering mechanism comprises a link system with a link rod, one end of which is swingably connected to a steering bar, which is in turn fulcrumed in the rear frame, the other end of said link rod being swingably connected to a knee lever, which is in turn fulcrumed in the front portion of the frame, said knee lever being rotatably connected to a tie-rod mechanism for the turning movement of the front wheels and the swivel axle of each front wheel is disposed substantially above and perpendicularly to the contact surface between the corresponding wheel and the ground. 